ENTER THE DRAGON. NO, LION

When you're delivering a yacht to a Chinese client ( ref my post last summer ), you have to do it properly. Hence Feadship whistling up a couple of lions in Rotterdam where they are rarely to be seen, far less filmed. Here, though, in best Attenborough style, is never-before-seen footage of them showing their lack of fear, even on a concrete pontoon and next to a 45m yacht. I think I saw Dick van Lent tremble slightly though.

There was a great dinner in the evening in the splendour of the Royal Rotterdam Sailing and Rowing Club which had a strict dress code meaning a rare appearance for a Bannenberg tie. The Owner's representative liked my tie so much ( purple and white by Richard James ) that I felt honour bound to take it off and give it to him with the result that I only narrowly avoided being asked to leave the premises. Enboldened by this concept of expressing a liking for something and reaping the rewards, I expressed a liking for a 45m Vantage but was met with a slightly glassy stare by Dick so I am not yet a member of the yacht owning ranks.

Blue Sky departs imminently for her new home in the Far East.

LADY PETRA VIDEO

We recently returned from the Monaco Show where Lady Petra was berthed, with Emperor Frans I of Oss receiving guests on board. We last saw him on the Friday evening, at the centre of a distinguished gathering on the Bridge Deck, tasting fine Cognac.

Some weeks previously, Lady Petra had been in Montenegro where Superyacht Media made this film :

http://bcove.me/xloexyog

Proving his all round versatility, Frans was also in attendance there and, by all accounts, spent some time in the Director's chair.

With thanks to the teams at Heesen Yachts and Superyacht Media

#TRENDING WITH MARTIN REDMAYNE

After failing to make the cut for the Bannenberg old boys love-in a few months ago, Martin Redmayne kindly offered me the olive branch of joining the bright young things team, along with Messrs Harrison, Hoekstra, Oeino and Pastrovich. Narrowing the topic for discussion to merely "The Future of Yacht Design", Martin gamely tried to get the gang to spot the trends for the future. To his undoubted chagrin, we collectively managed about one and a half suggestions between us, one of which was "bigger yachts".

The point being, trends are pretty hard to divine with the inherent individuality of a yacht owner. As someone smart in the audience observed, it's easier to spot these so-called trends by looking backwards a few years later, which all sounds a bit space-time continuum.

Undaunted, Martin flushed out a final prediction for the future out of all of us, the most pleasing of which was Stefano's hunch that all yachts will lose a deck, probably the "last" one.



So, I am not 100% certain if the audience felt suitably enlightened. It was a fun evening though. In contrast to the Bannenberg old boys, we did not swig Bollinger on stage as we pontificated about the yachting world, so there is the Future of Yacht Design. No Champagne.

As per my earlier post on the subject of colour, it was also clear that Mr Hoekstra has a fearless relationship with the colour purple. And maybe velvet too.

With thanks to Luke Sprague / Superyachtimages.com

COLOUR BY DAVID HICKS ( and brokers...)

I read a nice piece by India Hicks the other day in Finch's Quarterly about her father David ( incidentally a very good friend of my Dad ). She was writing about his bold use of colour and described what she called "his fearless relationship with pink, scarlet and orange". This photo of one of his rooms would seem to validate that. He also once drove his Land Rover through a field of daffodils as they were the wrong shade of yellow. This seems to us entirely admirable and we are currently looking for similar targets, though we are all too urban to own a Land Rover.* Correction. Mr Rowell does own a Land Rover Discovery but it has no traces of mud or crushed daffodil, merely Promemoria catalogues and books about obscure mid-century designers.

In fact, in our studio, there are a number of banned colours : at the top of the list is what Bannenberg Snr used to call Barclays Bank blue. I owe it as a matter of honour to him to continue this tonal fatwa. Mr Rowell also has a difficult relationship with members of the coral family and only consented to allow this shade on a couple of scatter cushions under some duress from a Client.

This made me think about the protracted, and often brutal, battles for the colour spectrum waged by various brokerage houses in recent years.Some years back Edmiston carried out a premptive strike for the colour red. Escalation soon followed when YCO annexed yellow and Burgess marched into turquoise which offered little resistance. Yacht Zoo grabbed black, C&N adopted a strategy of divide and rule by controlling two shades of blue. Ocean Independence mounted a long and demanding expedition to the furthest reaches of the colour spectrum and returned with shades new to the human eye.

TALITHA, THE JUBILEE AND HER FUNNELS

You have to hand it to the Captain and crew of Talitha when it comes to doing their bit for Jubilee spirit and all that. Eschewing the easy option of a bit of bunting or a poster, they settled for a discreet ( only about 2 metres across ) and tastefully desaturated Union flag painted on the top of the forward funnel, visible only to  passing birds and photographers in light aircraft ( thank you Shelley Barron ).

Talitha's funnels have an interesting history all of their own. During her rebuild at Devonport in the mid 1990s, Bannenberg Snr drew two funnels to replace the single original on Jezebel as she was previously.The dimensions of the aft one ( and therefore both ) were set by the Jodrell Bank-sized satellite dish which was the cutting edge in those days. The forward funnel hid ( and still does ) the main generator exhausts as well as the radar array, and Devonport had to construct the funnels with this radar transparency in mind.

So handsome were these funnels that Vogue commissioned a photo shoot by the renowned Koto Bolofo and here you can see a model dressed for everyday life on board, down to 7" heels and a ricepaper parasol.

Fast forward a few years and the funnels needed to be replaced, so the opportunity was taken to put them on a diet and a pair of slightly leaner ones were put in place, taking advantage of less massive satellite dish requirements. There was still room, however, for the Captain's bag of golf clubs. Or so I am told.

SEAL OF APPROVAL

OK. I know I said in an earlier post I wouldn't succumb to tabloid pun sub-editing.

Elandess, our ( well not exactly ours, but you know..) 60m Abeking delivered in 2009, is currently in the Galapagos, doing proper trans-ocean cruising. Here is a non-paying charter guest on the swim platform. Refreshingly, he made no demands on the crew for cocktails, sun cream or a towel. A simple fish was all that was needed.

Once we receive his full technical report, we shall pass the findings on to Abeking. Early indications suggest the aft steps were not sized correctly for flippers. And there was no ball to balance on his nose.

(AD)VANTAGE CHINA

We are really excited to be working with the team at Feadship to decorate the interior of their 45m Vantage ( Hull 805 ) for their new Client from China. The yacht has a "Miami" interior, originally developed by Sinot Yacht Design to which we are adding several layers in the broad spirit of American Deco. And a bit more besides.

Delivery in time for Chinese New Year 2013 - Year of The Snake, I believe.